Hjælp! Jeg er en fisk

"Help! I'm A Fish" is a Danish-Norwegian-German-Irish co-production with additional animation done in Spain, England and Bangkok, plus voice work (in the English-language version) done in the UK, Canada and the US. So it's a good advertisement for international cooperation, but as a movie it's less effective.

The actual story isn't bad (three stereotyped kids - a sporty lad, his cute little sister and their fat brainy cousin - go fishing, stumble into the lair of an eccentric scientist and, thanks to his special potion, turn into fishes (a flyfish, a starfish and a jellyfish respectively); and unless they can get the antidote within 48 hours they'll stay fishes forever), but the handling doesn't have the extra touch that could lift it into something great. As is often the case in live-action films, Alan Rickman livens things up no end as the voice [again, in the English-language version] of the movie's villain, a fish who drinks some of the antidote and wants to use his intelligence to take over the undersea world, or something... it's never really clear thanks to the script.

The animation's often quite good (but the opening titles of fish swimming clash with the first scenes with the human characters - the quality is a bit jarring), some scenes are genuinely effective such as the final faceoff between heroes and villains, and it's inoffensive - unless you consider montages set to Europop songs and the presence of American voices offensive (incidentally, why are the children voiced by Americans and their parents voiced by Canadians?) - but it's not really too memorable, either. "Help! I'm A Fish" is preferable to some Disney films and is certainly closer to a proper movie than other European animated features (at least I managed to get through this, which is more than can be said for "Millionaire Dogs"), but while it's not fair to expect "The Little Mermaid," ultimately it's not nearly as cute and endearing as... well, that Little Trees song you hear over the credits.

"I'm a little yellow fish in the deep blue sea... won't somebody save me?"

Delightful animated feature about a bunch of kids turning into fish by accident when visiting a weird scientist. Excellent animation and music with some truly mesmerizing sequences, but some scenes may be a little too creepy for very young children. Only complaint: Why is the English languaged version (with Alan Rickman and Terry Jones) missing on the DVD? ***

This is a fun kids movie with beautiful animation! Some of the Disney movies could learn a thing or two from the Norwegians. Alan Rickman and Terry Jones do brilliant voice work on this. The songs get a little tiresome, but overall the movie is unbearably cute.

A 5.6 IMDb rating for a kids film like this is usually not a good sign; after all, its the same rating as Transformers 2 and Quest For Camelot. Frankly, the DVD art looks absolutely horrendous and the plot sounds like an episode from Johnny Test, but however, this movie is the ultimate example of "Dont judge a book by its over" because not only did it far exceed my expectations, but it was a near great movie in almost every aspect.

The film involves three kids who get turned into fish after drinking a potion created by a nutty scientist. The kids have 48 hours to find an antidote or else they will be stuck as fish forever. Plus, the antidote has leaked into the sea and has started to turn regular dumb fish into talking genius fish, and the villain fish (voiced by the perfectly cast Alan Rickman) has become a super genius and is bent on taking over the world. A cliché plot, yes, but this is probably the weakest of the films flaws.

The animation is stellar. The 2D looks gorgeous and flows fluidly. The 3D animation...yah, it looks pretty choppy and mediocre, but fortunately it is not used too often. The characters are well written and their interactions with each other and their surroundings are believable and fun. The songs (this is a musical, kinda sorta) aren't bad either, and I actually was humming Alan Rickman's villain song. The film is also devoid of clichés, for the most part at least. There were at least five or six moments were the film did something totally unexpected and completely original. Bravo for a kids film I say, Bravo!

One thing I must touch on is the abundance of violence. On the surface (no pun intended), this film seems extremely harmless. Wrong! This film is full of senseless death, including a shark that eats innocent fish and some of the main characters in the movie. One scene that sticks out is when the main character, Fly, gets stabbed in the face by a crab and blood, yes, BLOOD, floats around in the water. But most of all, this film has possibly THE ballsiest villain death of all time. I wont spoil it, but it is an original and fantastic way to finish the villain. Also, there is a fake-out death that occurs involving Fly that actually made my jaw drop.

Overall, this is a very well made animated movie, and the 5.6 rating is extremely harsh. I've tried to find out why this movie isn't well liked by audiences, but I cant find a decisive answer. The only negative things I can find about this film through my eyes are the brief moments of CGI animation, the main pop song is annoying, and maybe some were offended by the violence, but that still does not answer the hate this film gets. The IMDb reviews that rated this a 1/10 are completely delusional, with one person saying the only good thing was the 3D animation (which was surprisingly the worst thing), one review seeming to imply that it was made solely to cash off Finding Nemo (despite the fact that this was made four years earlier), and one reviewer did not even seem to have watched the movie, claiming that it was full of clichés, it was full of bathroom humor (which it had none) and the animation was abysmal. I am willing to bet this last reviewer simply saw the DVD cover at his local rental store and went home pretending he had saw it. Shame, he missed out on a great movie.

This is a total recommendation by every means of the word. Hopefully, you'll be just as surprised as I was, and just as satisfied too. If this movie had better marketing, it would be much more known and loved. I guarantee it.

I will admit that this film lacks the qualities that make Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Dreamworks so memorable. I am nearly 17, and I think it is a very entertaining but flawed film, that is much better than people give credit for. Adults won't find much to go on, but children will love at least one aspect of the movie.

The animation is in general very good,considering it's a danish studio, very bright in the underwater sequences. However, some of the character animation was not as good as it could have been, and it was a little flat, especially in the first ten minutes or so.

The songs were adequate, but I personally think both children and adults won't remember any of them, except "Help I'm a little yellow fish", perhaps not always in a good way. I liked that song, and I liked "Intelligence", but the other songs are forgettable. The incidental music wasn't bad either, though some of it sounded very like the Lion King.

The story is a very nice idea indeed, about three children accidentally coming across a potion that turns them into fish, and encountering a villainous fish named Joe (admittedly an odd name for a villain), who is desperate for power. I personally thought the story was a nice idea, but there were some scenes where it dragged, and others where it felt rushed. I did think the script was nicely-written, again it may depend on the audience, as there is a lot of very confusing maths and science.

The voice talents were actually not that bad at all. Alan Rickman lent his gritty baritone to a cool and suave villain, and I must say he didn't do too bad a job. As a matter of fact, I was impressed with him more than anybody else. Had he had some better material,(not as bad as it could have been) his villain could have been more memorable than they made him. Terry Jones was an inspired choice for McKrill. His character is quite mad, and there were times when Jones was very funny, but other times when he quite badly overdid the character, most notably in his song. Fly, Stella and Chuck were well done, but the only voice actor I wasn't hugely keen on was the voice actor of the shark; he was very loud and got a bit annoying.

The special features on the DVD could have been of a bigger variety. There was an interesting featurette with interviews with Rickman and Jones, and some equally interesting filmographies. If anything, there could have had a bit more variety for kids, like games and trailers for other films.

All in all, I liked this film. Is it the best animation in the world? No it isn't, but it isn't too bad an attempt. 7/10 Bethany Cox